Invest in a good quality click-type (not a beam-type) torque wrench and use it religiously. If you only had one tool in addition to your regular hand tools, it should be a torque wrench. You should buy a 1/2 inch drive, 50 to 150 ft lb wrench for most auto work. If you want to invest in a second one, buy a 1/4 drive inch lb model for small fasteners, like on your bicycle. (Sorry guys, I don't know what those values translate to in newton meters.)

I recall a trade show where a vendor had a display with a plain box-end wrench and a special device that recorded torque. If you could put an exact torque of 20 ft lbs on the device, you would win a torque wrench. While I watched about 15 people try, not one came even close. Even the pro mechanics were off, usualy on the low side. It sure convinced me.

In some applications the fastener torque is critical, like cylinder head or connectng rod bolts. Mess up and you can destroy the engine. Most other fasteners aren't torque-critical, but benefit from being tightened to the value the engineers intended.

One thing that most people are unaware of, and almost everyone ignores, is that torque wrenches can get out of calibration, especially if they are abused or dropped. There are places that will test your wrench against a calibrated load and give you a correction chart (you can't "adjust" them to make them read perfectly). Griot's Garage does this for free plus shipping if you buy a wrench from them.

When I worked as an aircraft mechanic, we had to have all the shop torque wrenches, as well as those owned by the mechanics, tested yearly, if I remember correctly.

posted by 12.82.17...

• do you need a torque wrench or will a regular tire ...., davec, Mon, 18 Mar 2002 23:00:46
  • Re: do you need a torque wrench or will a regular tire ...., steve, Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:34:22
    • 80 ft.lbs. (110 Nm) n/m, Bill S , Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:56:04
  • Re: do you need a torque wrench or will a regular tire ...., 2Slow, Tue, 19 Mar 2002 13:16:08
    • Re: do you need a torque wrench or will a regular tire ...., RickP, Tue, 19 Mar 2002 13:48:37
      • Torque Wrenches for cheap, Ed, Wed, 20 Mar 2002 15:00:05
      • Re: Beam vs click-type torque wrench., John Davies, Tue, 19 Mar 2002 20:01:04
        • Re: Beam vs click-type torque wrench., 2Slow, Wed, 20 Mar 2002 09:01:28
          • Re: Beam vs click-type torque wrench., John Davies, Wed, 20 Mar 2002 11:30:21
        • Re: Beam vs click-type torque wrench., RickP, Tue, 19 Mar 2002 22:04:26
  • Buy a torque wrench (more, long), John Davies, Tue, 19 Mar 2002 11:12:19 <-- Viewing This Message
  • duh - 2nd part answer. Sears, craftsman tools dept ;o), Dave, Mon, 18 Mar 2002 23:11:59
  • torque wrench = excellent investment.. (m), Dave, Mon, 18 Mar 2002 23:07:42
    • Re: torque wrench = excellent investment.. (m), Rick D., Tue, 19 Mar 2002 12:05:23
    • Re: torque wrench = excellent investment.. (m), davec, Mon, 18 Mar 2002 23:11:24

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